Mother’s Day

Motherhood is joy, and it is pain.

Joy is easy, and it is polite. You can put it on a card and take it out to brunch.

Pain is hard, and it is ugly. You want to hide it away, but, like joy, it cannot be contained.

For the bereaved mother, there is no separation of the two. To ignore one is to deny the depth of the love you carry for the child you can no longer hold.

This Mother’s Day, I went deeper into the pain and wrote a piece for CMTRF. It wasn’t easy to write, so it may not be easy to read. It’s a part of my motherhood, though, and millions of others who know that love has a cost.

I would do it all over again, for the privilege of being her mother.







9 thoughts on “Mother’s Day

  1. This year was my second year as a bereaved mother and yesterday felt beyond painful and lonely. Sending you so much love. I hope you were able to find the beauty in yesterday, even if it was merely moments at a time. It’s so true when you say you cannot ignore the pain or joy.


  2. You are an elegant writer dear friend and through your stories I feel like I’ve come to know a hint of the beautiful, vivacious Julianna I will meet in heaven. I know how easy it can be to shut the world out. Thanks for being vulnerable in this way and sharing your story with us. Alex (and Julianna) are blessed to have an amazing mother full of fierce, unwavering love!

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s